Read Online Loving Your Lies by Piper Shelly - Free Book Online Page B

lashes shielding the blue of his eyes, he kept
his gaze on the pages.
    A moan rose from my mother as she stirred,
but Julian didn’t move. On purpose I assumed. Trying to hide his
deep concern for her from me.
    With the absence of his touch, my mother
became fitful. She awoke, her face contorted with lines of pain. A
minute later, she sat straight gazing out through the tiny
window.
    My eyes locked with Julian’s as my blood ran
cold.
     
    *
     
    Though the rest of the flight went by
without any further incidents, my breath hissed out in relief when
the wheels touched the French ground. With the illuminated sign
coming off above our heads, we unbuckled our seatbelts and got off
the plane. My mother clung to Julian’s arm as they descended the
escalator. I followed on their heels.
    Sweat beaded on my skin. Once inside the
air-conditioned building, I wiped my forehead with the sleeve of my
sweater. Compared to the mild temperatures in Britain, France felt
like a furnace.
    At the luggage claim, we didn’t have to wait
long before our things came circling on the conveyer. Our baggage
in tow, we exited the terminal to find a couple waiting for us by a
dark gray SUV.
    The tall man, dressed in beige shorts and a
black shirt, had wrapped his arm around a smaller woman at his
side. Long strawberry-blonde hair cascaded down her back. Her face
lit up as she spotted us, and she came running. She greeted my
mother and Julian in French, hugged and kissed them. Julian had to
bend to receive a peck on both his cheeks. Releasing him, the woman
turned to me, beaming like a hundred watt bulb.
    Instinct had me backing off, my hands raised
in self-defense. “We better skip the kissing.”
    The lady held out her hand to me and said,
“Hello chérie , I am Marie Runné, your aunt.”
    She swallowed the H of hello , and I’d
never heard someone pronounce the letter R in such a funny way.
Fighting back a snicker, I shook her hand from two feet away. No
need to run the risk of being pulled into an involuntary hug.
    “This is my husband, Albert.” She dragged
out the last bit of his name like he was called Al-bear . The
name fit. He was indeed as tall as a bear, though his silver-gray
hair resembled the fur of a wolf’s back.
    “ Bonjours, Jona. My wife and I are
happy you decided to come and stay with us.”
    I shoved my hands deep into my pants’
pockets and gazed straight into his green eyes. “I was given no
choice.”
    Marie’s voice remained soft as she spoke
again. “It was very brave of you to travel so far to a place where
you do not know anyone. But you will find we are family. Do not be
afraid. We shall take good care of you.”
    Hello? Did I give the impression of being
frightened? She could hardly use the aversion against kissing
strangers against me, could she? I narrowed my eyes and gritted my
teeth. “I’m not scared of anything.”
    A train of fuzzy warmth spiraled down my
neck the moment Julian leaned close to my left ear from behind. His
voice was low as he said, “We both know at least one thing that
scares you out of your wits, don’t we?” Then the fiend picked up my
backpack and chuckled all the way to the car’s rear.
    That boy got on my nerves.
    The car was spacious enough to hold the
three of us in the backseats without being squeezed in like
sausages. With Julian separating me from my mother, I kept my back
turned to him and stared out the window. It took a long,
seventy-minute drive to the place I was supposed to do bond service
until my birthday.
    In spite of all the misery I had yet to face
in this country, France was a beautiful place. In London, brick
buildings and hectic traffic had closed in on me as soon as I’d
stepped out of the orphanage. Here, trees lined the single lane
streets. Lakes, meadows, and hills with all kinds of slopes
produced an enchanting landscape. It seemed as if the beauty of the
country strived to calm everyone’s stressed out day.
    Unfortunately, my mother’s company and